Me! Me! Me! No... J.O.Y.

Too often we are ME-centered. How can I feel happy? How can I look better? How can I get everything in life I want? Why do these things happen to ME? Why can't anyone understand how I feel? Why is no one calling/texting ME? Why do people care about everyone else except ME? etc etc.

Well, the truth is...this world is not about ME. We were not created to bring happiness to ourselves. We were not created to bring glory to ourselves. We were not created to make a bunch of money and continuously buy, buy, buy and want more, more, more. We are in this world for a specific reason.

God tells us, "You have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created." Revelation 4:11. We were created to bring God glory. We are here to love God and to love others. We are called according to His purpose. We are most like Jesus (OUR SAVIOR!) when we love and serve others, and in doing this we further His kingdom.

John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."

We must have the mentality of a Christ-centered lifestyle. When we know Who we are loving, serving, and bringing glory to, then everything falls into place. When we replace our thoughts of "I need a break from my family" with "How can I better serve my family today", our world changes. Seriously. When we replace "She ate the last cookie" with "I'm glad she got the last cookie", our world changes. When we replace "I have to do all the work around here" with "Thank you, Lord, for a family to take care of", our world changes. When we replace "These kids are driving me nuts" with "For this child I prayed", our world changes. When we replace "I cannot live with that man/woman for one more second" with "Love is patient. Love is kind.", our world changes.

We live a selfish world. The world tells us to look out for #1. But I can tell you this from experience, my world changes every day that I focus less on ME and more on others. 

JESUS first, OTHERS second, YOURSELF last. = JOY

And what is absolutely so neat about this is that not only will we have joy as a reward here on this earth, but Jesus has promised a reward in heaven for serving others.

::Hebrews 6:10 "For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints."::

::Luke 6:38 "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." ::

::Hebrews 13:16 "And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased."::

This is my goal every day. In all honesty, it is sometimes very difficulty to put others first. Our nature is to immediately think, "well, what about me?". But I am fighting against that. Satan wants me to think about me. And he will not win this battle. God is good to me, and I want to be good to Him which means serving Him and others. I know that staying close to God through prayer and keeping my head and heart in the Word will help me achieve this daily goal. It's hard, but it's SO worth it. :)